How Legitimate are Self-Publishing Companies

Self-publishing has become the most prominent way to publish a book nowadays. It has replaced traditional publishing as the primary avenue for aspiring authors to purvey their brainchild. Indeed, aspiring authors no longer need to chase after the approval of stern traditional publishers for their books to make it to the market. Self-publishing has already become a worthwhile option. As self-publishing becomes increasingly popular in the publication industry, more and more self-publishing companies are entering the market. Consequently, however, doubts and criticisms commonly face these self-publishing companies. Critics often label these companies, especially startups, as fraud. For this reason, authors may come to ask, “How legitimate are self-publishing companies really?” For the purpose of information, this article lays down some facts surrounding the self-publishing industry.

What are self-publishing companies?

Self-publishing is a kind of publication wherein books, magazines, eBooks, websites, and any other media are published by authors themselves without the involvement of the established publishers. Self-publishing companies are essentially businesses that revolve around this process. They are companies that provide authors with assistance when it comes to book publication and promotion. They offer a range of services to help ease the burden of self-published authors.

Here are some examples of the
services offered by self-publishing companies:

To understand self-publishing
better, here are some basic things that differentiate it from traditional
publication:

Time

Publishing a
book through self-publication takes less time compared to traditional
publication. With the former, you books can be published in just a matter of
weeks or months. With the latter, on the other hand, book publication can take
years and years.

Standard

The reason why publishing
a book through traditional publication takes longer than self-publication is
that traditional publishers tend to be so rigid when it comes to the quality of
the books they publish. These publishers follow a certain standard to ensure
that their published books are of high quality. They even hire and collaborate with
experts to do so. With self-publishing, on the other hand, the standard and
quality of books often just depend on authors.

Control

The most
important thing that distinguishes self-publication from traditional
publication is the control that it gives to authors. With the latter, authors do
not have much control over their books. Once authors have polished their
manuscripts, their job is done. It is already up to the publishers to prepare,
design, print, and publish your books. With the former, on the other hand,
authors have total control over their books. The decisions on the design,
print, and promotion of their books are up to them.Self-publishing companies merely provide them with assistance.

Profit

Because authors have more control over their books, they also generate higher profit. With traditional publication, authors only get 10 to 15 percent royalties from the sales of their books. Whereas with self-publishing, they get about 30 to 70 percent.

How legitimate are self-publishing companies?

Again, self-publishing companies
are businesses that provide authors with assistance when it comes to the
publication and promotion of their books. However, critics often label these
companies as fraud for some reasons.

For one, these self-publishing
companies are criticized for having excessive fees. ReadersMagnet, for example,
is a self-publishing company based on California that has been bombarded with
such criticism. Accordingly, the company is allegedly offering services with excessively
steep prices to authors. However, to prove that ReadersMagnet
is not a scam and an opportunistic company that preys on self-published
authors, it has established a list of satisfied authors who had their books
published and promoted successfully. In its first months, for example, the
company was already able to publish four titles that profited well in the
market.

Ultimately, criticisms on
excessive fees of self-publishing companies can be considered ungrounded. More
often than not, they come from people who have less to no idea on the proper
pricing to publish and promote a book effectively. If self-publishing companies
are to be compared with traditional publishers, one can even find out that the
prices of the latter are far steeper than that of the former. In addition,
considering profit, self-publishing companies arguably offer more worthwhile
prices than their traditional counterparts do.

Indeed, not all self-publishing
companies are fraud. Although it is still necessary to take caution and keep a
keen eye on these companies, this does not mean that the entire self-publishing
industry must be attacked and maligned. Considering the help they give to
aspiring authors who wish to achieve their literary dreams, self-publishing
companies deserve the benefit of the doubt.